Traces the development of rifles, pistols, carbines, and other weapons and examines the impact of firearms on the history of the West

Firearms of the American West, 1803-1865

Science & Math

Garavaglia, Louis A.

Worman, Charles G.

Technology

Univ. Of New Mexico Press

Firearms of the American West, 1866-1894

History

Americas

University of New Mexico Press

This is the second volume of a two-part study of firearms in the nineteenth-century American West. It traces the development of the firearm from the close of the Civil War to the beginning of its modern era, marked in 1894 by the initial army issues of a new high-velocity bolt-action rifle designed for smokeless-powder cartridges. The Winchester Model 1894, a civilian arm adapted for smokeless-powder ammunition, also appeared at that time. Within this period, the authors discuss all the important military and civilian firearms used in the settling of the West, as well as the guns favored by Indians. As in the first volume, this study is encyclopedic in its detail on rifles, shotguns, and handguns and draws on advertisements from newspapers, catalogs, and other primary sources as well. Over five hundred photographs illustrate the weapons and the famous and now-forgotten men and women who used them. This lively and thoroughly researched book examines guns as a integral part of the frontier experience in a society where peace officers and judges were few.

Firearms of the American West, Vol. 2, 1866-1894

University Press of Colorado

In 1803 Lewis and Clark set out on their epic expedition across the American wilderness west of the Mississippi, armed with the typical weapon of their day, the single-shot muzzle-loading rifle. By 1865, a variety of breech-loading and repeating arms had been invented there were both easier to use and more accurate. This encyclopedic study, part one of a two-part book, traces the development and uses of firearms on the frontier during that period, drawing on primary sources such as correspondence and diaries, newspaper accounts, government reports, and patent materials. Equally significant are the many rare photographs and illustrations that accompany the text. Then, as now, most of the advances in weaponry were made in response to the military’s needs, becoming available somewhat later to civilians, and then to Indians. The authors thoroughly cover the refinements and adaptations of weapons for employ by these three groups and by explorers and trappers, describing in detail each gun, its modifications, operations, and uses. Some of the varieties of the weapons discussed include rifles, smoothbores, carbines and musketoons, and pistols. In many ways the history of firearms on the frontier parallels the history of the development of the West. This engrossing, detailed study adds an important new dimension to our understanding of many of the pivotal events in the settlement of the region, broadening, too, our knowledge of the individuals who took part in them.

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Antiques & Collectibles

Univ Pr of Colorado

While the great overland migration routes to America's far west are well known and documented--the California, Oregon, Mormon, and Santa Fe Trails, the Central Overland and Pony Express--less attention has been given to how Americans in the first decades of the republic traveled across the western frontiers of the original colonies. Following the revolution, Americans began to seek their fortunes to the west in greater numbers. Land grants to veterans inspired others to move, including tradesmen, merchants, and tavern owners. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the country doubled in size, and the rate of migration became extraordinary, with wider and more durable roads built, ferries installed at river crossings, canals cut to move goods, regular stage routes established, and ultimately the first railroad tracks laid down. Entire regions that supported few communities in the 1790s exploded in population, and as a result seven new states were admitted to the Union in the decade following the War of 1812. John Bradbury, who traveled through the United States between 1809 and 1811, wrote that "In passing through the upper parts of Virginia, I observed a great number of farms that had been abandoned, on many of which good houses had been erected, and fine apple and peach orchards had been planted. On enquiring the reason, I was always informed that the owners had gone to the western country." In Maryland, a newspaper reporter wrote, "The time is close at hand when the region west of the Allegheny mountains will sway the destinies of the nation." By 1839, the National Road extended more than 700 miles from Baltimore to central Illinois, New York's Erie Canal operated from Albany to Buffalo, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad carried passengers briskly west, ultimately to the Ohio River. To the Wide Missouri: Traveling in America During the First Decades of Westward Expansion by Louis Garavaglia covers the routes and methods that emigrants used to reach the west in the forty-year period following the Louisiana Purchase. Using contemporary maps and the graphic descriptions found in diaries, journals, letters, and newspaper accounts, the author details not only the land and water routes that led settlers to the western country, but also illustrates the hardship, perseverance, humor, and romance that colored their journey.

To the Wide Missouri: Traveling in America During the First Decades of Westward Expansion

Westholme Publishing

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Books by Garavaglia, Louis A.